Microbe Stage GDD

I think that idea sounds interesting, but until we actually iron out the concept for it, I feel it's better that we just stick to reproductase as a placeholder.

As I see it moopli suggests changing the name of the process from the imaginary enzyme reproductase to something more relevant to the replication process, in reality the thing goes kinda this way-with enough food(aka energy) for the cell anabolic methabolic pathways set in(cell goes into building mode, proteins, lipids, whatever it needs), so current system is kinda accurate - enough ATP means synthesis, cell divides when cytoplasm volume increases twice if i remember correctly then replication enzymes kick in and the DNA string in the nucleus is copied and mitosis occurs.

Tritium wrote:

with enough food...cell goes into building mode...cell divides when cytoplasm volume increases twice...DNA copied...mitosis

That's more or less why I was suggesting a two-phase replication bar earlier -- simply changing the name was more of my compromise suggestion.

Anyway, here's something that cropped up in a discussion with Nick yesterday:

Since Microbe stage covers the development of eukaryotic life, it starts at least a billion years after the dawn of life. Cyanobacteria (or an equivalent) have filled the oceans, quite a bit of land too, and are the source of the now-heavily-oxygenated atmosphere. Prokaryotes of all kinds are everywhere; especially in the sorts of rich pools where early eukaryotic life would probably have thrived. So I suggest we reflect that in Thrive, and have all sorts of prokaryotes present in the water. Prokaryotes are generally tiny compared to eukaryotes, so many would only be noticeable in clouds; but we also need bacteria more on the scale of organelles, since mitochondria and chloroplasts, at least, are acquired through phagocytosis of the right bacteria. Since the game doesn't start at the dawn of life, it doesn't make sense to have large amounts of random compounds (like glucose) floating around. Luckily, with prokaryotes everywhere, we won't need those random clouds of compound appearing on their own, since prokaryotes can provide that food supply instead. What's more, this gives the lysosome a clear role in-game -- digesting phagocytosed bacteria.

That covers more or less what we came up with. Thoughts?

So compound clouds are being replaced with bacteria? That would be better for protozoan cells as they feed on bacteria: In this pic the big cell in the middle is eukaryotic Paramecium i think, and the little white dots are bacteria.

Picture:

But phytoplankton still needs inorganic compounds from the environment.

Tritium wrote:

So compound clouds are being replaced with bacteria? That would be better for protozoan cells as they feed on bacteria: In this pic the big cell in the middle is eukaryotic Paramecium i think, and the little white dots are bacteria.
But phytoplankton still needs inorganic compounds from the environment.

I'm pretty sure it's implied that there are inorganic compounds floating around, just too small to be of much concern for the eukaryotes.

I don't know about them replacing compound clouds. From what I know, people'll go the Civilization angle and just have the glucose cloud be cyanobacteria swimming around. Y'know how Civ shows resources like ivory and furs as the animal they're from walking around on the resource tile?

Chasing bacteria down would be fun, though, last I heard, they went with glucose tiles and such. I don't have any qualms with a quick change, however.

Pointless Humor:

Incidentally, will compound clouds/bacteria tiles have a few models moving around to indicate their presence, or will there be a particle effect instead?

Tritium wrote:

But phytoplankton still needs inorganic compounds from the environment.

'Tis true; we'll still have oxygen, Carbon dioxide, and something for nitrogen most likely. Inorganic phosphate too, if we ever add that.

MitochondriaBox wrote:

From what I know, people'll ... last I heard, they ...

Which people? Do you mean us, the ones deciding on the features, or us the people writing the code, or some other people? I'm very confused, cuz I'm not sure what "they" you're talking about.

moopli wrote:

Tritium wrote:

But phytoplankton still needs inorganic compounds from the environment.

'Tis true; we'll still have oxygen, Carbon dioxide, and something for nitrogen most likely. Inorganic phosphate too, if we ever add that.

MitochondriaBox wrote:

From what I know, people'll ... last I heard, they ...

Which people? Do you mean us, the ones deciding on the features, or us the people writing the code, or some other people? I'm very confused, cuz I'm not sure what "they" you're talking about.

Basically, the people who were deciding the features. I remember somewhere about plans to replace the floating emitters with compound-providing hexes.

People outside the Slack group won't know this yet, but I'm working on an updated GDD at the moment to replace the old one.

My original Slack message:

'OK, so since I'm now free of exams (well, one left), I've decided I'm going to add as much as possible to the GDD before copying it to the Wiki, given that right now we don't have much public documentation which isn't particularly encouraging for newcomers. I'll stick to what's been decided, but for a lot of things I might have to make assumptions based on previous discussions. It'll still be completely editable so things can be changed, but at least we'll know what exactly is up for debate in future.'

You can now track its progress here:
http://thrivegame.wikidot.com/microbe-stage-gdd

Great work.